Strips of material are used in many end uses including but not limited to the manufacture of diapers and other absorbent products. The strips are cut on the manufacturing line at longitudinally spaced transverse cut lines to divide the strip into individual sheet elements each used in the manufacture of a respective absorbent product. Generally these strips are also cut to provide different widths along the length of the strip for various reasons including for shaping of the products to better match the body of the user and for better aesthetics. Most current processes of this type die cut the elements from a single strip of the material having a width at least equal to the maximum required width and discard the waste at the sides formed by cutting away the side portions to the narrower scalloped width. Attempts are made to recycle the waste portions, generally by grinding and returning the materials to the strip manufacturer. However, recent developments have increased the complexity of the materials thus increasing the cost and making recycling more difficult. There is therefore pressure to reduce the amount of waste.
Previously packages of a continuous strip of material have been formed using a technique known as “festooning” in which the strip is folded back and forth to lay a series of strip portions back and forth with each portion being folded relative to the next about a line transverse to the strip. The technique of festooning has been available for many years and is used in packaging many different types of materials but particularly material of a fibrous nature such as fabric, non-woven strips and the like. In this technique, the strip is conventionally guided into a receptacle such as a cardboard box while a first reciprocating movement causes portions of the strip to be laid across the receptacle and folded back and forth and a second reciprocating movement causes the positions of the portions to be traversed relative to the receptacle transversely to the portions. Normally the receptacle comprises a rigid rectangular container at least partly of cardboard having a base and four upstanding sides.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,966,905 issued Oct. 19, 1999 and in PCT International Application No. PCT/CA98/00592 published on 30 Dec. 1998 under publication No. WO 98/58864, O'Connor et al disclose an arrangement for packaging a strip in which the package is formed from a plurality of side by side stacks each containing one fan folded length of the strip where the bottom end of each stack is connected by a splice portion to the top end of the next adjacent stack so that the strip is continuous through the package.
In PCT International Application No. PCT/CA00/00196 published on 14 Sep. 2000 under publication No. WO 00/53513 is disclosed an arrangement for folding and wrapping in a packaging material a package structure of the type described in the above patent.
This arrangement has achieved significant commercial success and provides a structure which can supply at high speed a continuous length of strip to an end use machine such as a converting line for manufacturing diapers or feminine hygiene products. However other end uses of the strip can also be provided.
In PCT International application WO 01/02143 published Jan. 11, 2001 is disclosed by Eberle a package of the same construction as proposed by O'Connor in which the strips instead of being completely slit so that each is wholly separated from the next, the strips are separated in a manner which leaves small bridging sections periodically along the length of the slit line so as to hold the strip elements side by side during the folding and stacking process.
In German application 19918765.7 is provided further disclosure of the package structure of Eberle (assigned to Gevas) including particularly the arrangement of the spliced connecting portions at the end of the package.
Also in German Application by Eberle (also assigned to Gevas) is also disclosed some detail of the folding arrangement by which the web with the partially slit strip elements is folded into the fan folded stack.